Hongshanornithidae
Extinct family of birds
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hongshanornithidae is an extinct group of early ornithuromorph birds from the early Cretaceous period of China. It includes the genera Hongshanornis (the type genus) and Tianyuornis from the Yixian Formation of Inner Mongolia, Longicrusavis from the Yixian Formation of Liaoning Province, Parahongshanornis from the Jiufotang Formation of Liaoning Province, and Archaeornithura, the oldest known member, from the Huajiying Formation of Hebei Province.[1][2][3][4]
| Hongshanornithids Temporal range: Early Cretaceous,[1] | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | Theropoda |
| Clade: | Avialae |
| Clade: | Ornithuromorpha |
| Family: | †Hongshanornithidae O'Connor, Gao & Chiappe, 2010 |
| Type species | |
| †Hongshanornis longicresta Zhou & Zhang, 2005 | |
| Genera | |
Description
Classification
Hongshanornithidae was defined as a node-based clade including the last common ancestor of Hongshanornis longicresta and Longicrusavis houi plus all its descendants.[3]
Beginning in 2012, several studies began to find that the hongshanornithids were more closely related to songlingornithids (yanornithiformes) than to other early birds, making them part of the same clade.[5][6]
